The dawn of early summer was cool and chilling as the mountains were enveloped with mist and a slight breeze.
Xie MingLang and Gu MingYue had already packed their belongings when the sky was still dark, and she stood by patiently as the man locked up the door of the courtyard. The bamboo basket behind his back was filled with treated pelts of various animals that they were going to sell at the morning market for a living.
It would usually take the man no longer than half an hour to reach the market, however, as Gu MingYue was accompanying him today, they ended up taking a lot longer than expected because her stamina was not as great as a full-grown man.
In fact, though she was somewhat fit and would usually run around wildly in the valley, it had always been to dig up some edible mushrooms and wild vegetables near the creek, and not the deeper parts of the dangerous forest.
In fact, ever since she arrived in this mission world, she had not had the chance to see the world outside their valley.
And so, as she took in the greeneries of the forest, and listened to the chirping of the singing birds and the shuffling of the trees from the breeze, Gu MingYue took a deep breath in joy. Her footsteps slowly turned into a carefree skip, as if she was truly a wild and energetic young girl.
In the past, in both her original world and the mission worlds, whenever the background setting was ancient times, it would be as if she was a caged golden canary. Regardless of her status, she was required to always stay poised and collected, and because Xie MingLang did not restrict her at all, this gave her a new sense of freedom that she had never possessed.
Her smile shone brightly like a diamond, while her bright eyes gleamed with stars in them. Her face was basically beaming radiantly with happiness.
Xie MingLang glanced at the little girl, who was sometimes running around wildly with her arms open; sometimes stopping for a rest as she looked around curiously. It was as if the corners of her lips were permanently upturned, and her recent gloomy emotions seemed to be brightening up somewhat.
And Xie MingLang knew at this moment that, whatever happens in the future, everything will be fine as long as he could stay by her side and watch her smile.
The two made their way slow and steadily to town and arrived just when the market was on the verge of opening.
Quickly after that, Xie MingLang and Gu MingYue found a small unoccupied area and began setting up their simple store, basically just spreading a brown linen mat on the ground and placing the animal pelts neatly on top of the mat.
The two sat side by side on the mat as passersby approached them to ask about the price, but though many of them did inspect and touched the pelts thoroughly with their hands, their eyes kept drifting towards Gu MingYue, and it was obvious that their intentions were not fully on the pelts.
Most of the people who approached to inquire about the prices of the pelts were men of all ages, and in order to take a longer look at Gu MingYue, some of them even took their time picking and choosing through the pelts. One of the more shameless ones hogged up the entire area and took a while to choose, only to pick out a very small and least outstanding piece of pelt from the pile, and after paying the corresponding amount of money, the young man had no choice but to leave reluctantly, only to turn his head back towards Gu MingYue longingly after every three steps, causing Xie MingLang to frown in anger as he clenched his fist tightly together.
These little bastards dare to crave for his daughter, who was like an angel from a fairytale!
But just as swiftly as it arose, his anger subsided in a blink of an eye as a darkened and gloomy expression flashed through his face.
Meanwhile, Gu MingYue had been staring around at the lively market curiously. She noticed the young men surrounding their mat, but how can those young and scrawny men compare to the handsome and attractive male protagonist in the mission world?… Well, sometimes she would still remember the things that happened before inadvertently, but Gu MingYue knew well enough to hide the memory, that she would forever cherish, deep within her mind.
Her thoughts wandered and she remembered the time she was the princess of the country in her original world. Back then, whenever she needed anything, she would merely instruct her servants to invite the shopowner directly to her palace to introduce the items that she was interested in.
And even in the past few mission worlds, she had never made a public appearance on the streets such as now. But this time, she was able to sit cross-legged on the ground and observe the bustling crowd.
How refreshing and interesting!
Besides the filthy young men who approached them just to ogle at Gu MingYue, there were some middle-aged men whom Xie MingLang recognized as his regular customers. But still, Gu MingYue unintentionally took most of their attention away from the pelts.
After sending off the regular customers with his usual expressionless and serious face, Xie MingLang turned his head towards Gu MingYue and stared at her with indescribable eyes and mixed feelings within his heart.
What’s gotten into him? Gu MingYue thought to herself as she endured the man’s intense and complicated gaze.
Little did she know that at this current moment, flickering thoughts were flashing through the man’s mind: Time flies, and my little daughter had grown up to be a beautiful and charming young lady… She’s at the age where men would start getting attracted to her and likewise… As a father, I should be happy but… If only she would always belong to me… If only… she could be my woman……?
Translator Note:
Spring flowers are beginning to grow within our dense daddy’s heart!
